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Community Corner

James Lara is Ready for Your Closeup

The story of the man behind the scenes at Waubonsee's Educational Television department.

James “Jamie” Lara is pretty much in heaven every day when he goes to work. He is surrounded by video cameras, monitors, cables, lighting and microphones. And he gets to call the shots.

Lara, 40, leaves his Montgomery home during the work week and travels to Waubonsee Community College’s Sugar Grove campus to tape television shows that air on Waubonsee’s Educational Television.

“Everyday, I do what I love,” says Lara, a video production specialist at Waubonsee.

Lara is responsible for the college’s instructional and educational videos for classes as well as original programming like “On Track,” a show that features local musicians. He helped create “Down in Front,” a movie preview show, with Kendall 10 Theater manager Brian Wester. He works with faculty, staff and students to host, produce and edit the shows.

Undeniably, it’s Lara’s dream job. As a kid, he and a friend shot three-minute movies using outdated Super 8 cameras that happened to be sitting around their houses. The vintage cameras were ancient enough that they weren’t off limits to young hands, he says.

“They didn’t mind letting us borrow (the cameras),” Lara said. “That was the way we played.”

Lara, who grew up in Aurora, remembers going to Kmart to drop off the short rolls of film for processing, and then watching the unedited, silent movies on a projector at home. It was good practice in the art of film making, he says.

That practice paid off in 2001 when Lara shot the short film "Final Delivery" while attending Northern Illinois University (and working at Luigi’s Pizza and Fun Center). The film, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, premiered at NIU’s student film festival.

"Final Delivery," about a pizza delivery gone horribly wrong, stars Lara and many of his friends. His wife, Lillian, won best actress at the film fest for her role.

Lara is currently re-editing the movie, which was shot on videotape, using today’s technology and advanced editing software. (Apple Final Cut Pro, if you’re a tech junkie.)

“I’m really excited. Once it’s done, it will look gorgeous,” he said. He added that he’d like to upload the new “polished and refined” version on the Internet and have it available through social media outlets like Facebook and YouTube.

Playing with film landed Lara a part-time gig doing video camera work and directing productions for Creative Digital Masters in Aurora, which led to his full time job at Waubonsee in 2008.

Instead of Super 8 cameras, Lara now uses state-of-the-art cameras and editing equipment, but he is thankful for those early days of exploration. They put skills in his back pocket, he said.

Lara now enjoys working with college interns to teach them the tricks of the trade. He said they share the same passion and have a lot of potential.

As Lara steps off the small stage in Waubonsee’s studio and exits the set, he said, “I used to be a painter. It’s all in the preparation.”

Waubonsee Educational Television airs on Comcast channel 99 in Montgomery. For a full list of Waubonsee’s shows and times, visit http://www.waubonsee.edu/learning/flexible/television.

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